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Saturday, September 18, 2010

Wild Force: Saban or Disney season?

Fans tend to mix up whether Power Rangers Wild Force was a Saban season, or a Disney season. And I decided to end this little confusion.

It is, in fact, a Disney season. Let's review how:

Staffers who worked on Wild Force have confirmed that it was an entirely Disney production. Disney bought out Power Rangers during Time Force. The only work Saban did on Wild Force was purchasing the footage from Toei, making a logo, and commissioning a theme song. Above is the logo that Saban copyrighted before Disney bought the franchise.

And here's the one that was used for the show. Saban's logo was used for the merchandise a lot more, which is why people tend to mix up Wild Force as a Saban season.

Wild Force is a Disney FUNDED season PRODUCED by MMPR productions. So it still has Saban remnants despite being funded by Disney. That's why people view it as a Saban season. Many people get confused about this issue because the first half of Wild Force aired on Fox Kids, as part of a contractual obligation that Disney inherited when they purchased the franchise. But every single Wild Force episode credited Disney with the actual production. Disney inherited the existing MMPR Productions staff for Wild Force, so the season "feels" like a Saban-era production, but Disney was footing the bill.

The show had a different feel once Ninja Storm started, because it was produced by BVS Entertainment starting in New Zealand, not by MMPR Productions. I think that's why people mistake Ninja Storm the start of the Disney era.

Even the theme of Wild Force sounded Saban-ish. Ninja Storm's theme sounded really Disney-ish. I'd have to say whoever wrote the article is right on that, because I had a suspicion that Saban only did little things for Wild Force. Good work!